Ok, so I only have one down
But I blitzed it!
So let me share some great damn advice which I am working on following myself!1) Have a time where you regulary do the subject you hate the most.
This helps you do it automattically instead of waiting until you feel motivated to do it. For instance I study for one hour after tea Math Methods (which is a tortuous subject for me)

2) Know you stuff backwards

That how I blitzed todays Music Performance Exam – I knew my pieces from heart which meant that even if I got nervous my fingers would automatically trace the patterns of Bach (or whatever piece I was playing) and allow for my mind to get in gear again. I was confident because i knew I could do it because of the hours I had put in. I had the freedom to show off! I aim to put this into work by writing an essay a day (at least) until the English Exam. Now that I’ve written that I’ll HAVE to do it!

3) If your getting nervous about an exam DISTRACT THYSELF
Nerves can kill even an exam you’re prepared for. So don’t think about it. And if you do, think positively. I found that if I thought about my exam today the nerves started pinching my insides. So in the car on the way down I immersed myself in reading my Literature books and played my favourite music in the car (bopping along and singing as loud as possible!). Other-study distraction is probably best but if it’s what you need I give you permission for a bite of Facebook.

4) Be confident.
If you’ve put in the hours it will pay off. You have never been as ready in your life to tackle these challenges as you are now.

Here’s to us suffering the rigours of exams! See you on the other side when I can get a chance to kick this blog into shape!

I started this list when I was 10 and have been adding to it, and crossing off it ever since. When I first started this blog I wrote a ’57 Things I Want To Do Before I Die’ and after a few more ideas and modifications (and I full more cross outs – woo hoo!) I decided it was time for an update! Also, I plan to write a series based on the ones I have crossed out ala ‘Mighty Girl’. Keep posted!

1. Make a difference; rattle the world with something that will last and change future generations, the way people live and think

2. Be in love with life – capre diem!

3. Change someone’s life, inspire them,

4. Fall in love totally and completely

5. Write and publish a book/novel – or a few! Something classic, like the next Jane Austen

6. Record an album with at least a few originals, tour with a band

7. Have a family and raise children to look at the world with innocent, loving, curious eyes (in other words – not brats!)

8. See the Australian Chamber orchestra live in concert (and meet Richard Tongetti!)

9. Play in an orchestra for a full length symphony and/or the Messiah with a full orchestra!

10. Play these pieces on violin

Meditation

Bruch’s Violin Concerto

Montagues and Capulets

Nigun

Banjo and Violin

Play a violin concerto with a full orchestra backing

11. Get a lead role in a musical

12. Visit Prince Edward Island

13. Travel Europe

Other places to see:

Grand Canyon

Spain

Canada

Russia

Africa

New York

Jerusalem and Israel

14. Go on a missions trip

15. Go on a pilgrimage(could be linked to #13)

16. Visit Broadway. See Les Miserables, Rent, Lion King, Sondheim

17. Spend a month in some foreign city i.e. Paris

18. Ride the Orient Express

19. Read as many books as possible, prehaps even finish my list!

20. Hanglide like a bird

21. Sing at Carols by Candelight in Melbourne

22. Write a musical

23. Act in a movie or a stage show (even a commercial!)

24. Go to a U2 concert

25. Be a hero to someone

26. Make friends with someone I dont like

27. Meet a gypsy/Bohemian

28. Discover something

29. Conduct an orchestra

30. Fly an aeroplane

31. SEE THE SNOW, feel it, play in it, have a white Christmas

32. Find every planet on a telescope

33. Meet/Interview a famous person

34. Stay awake for 48 hours

35. Learn to tap dance

36. Go to a real ball (like the ones in fairytales)

37. Host a radio show

38. Go to the Hillsong conference

39. Paint an oil

40. Set up my own webpage

41. Do something no one’s ever done before

42. Start a club, society or band

43. Be a leader on a summer camp/music camp

44. Graffiti something public

45. Sleep under the stars with only a blanket

46. Learn self defence

47. Climb a ridgy-didge mountain

48. Have a two storey house with a designated guest bedroom full of guests

rating: 3 of 5 stars
Well I think you have to like the main character of the book to like the book and I did to some degree. someone told me that i HAD to read this book as a teenager to enjoy it fully and i did enjoy it – finished it in a day. It was humouress and touching but left me with a strange empty feel about the world. I hope Holden finds some meaning in his life – otherwise he’ll just be the eternal wanderer never finding a place of his own. I’m still thinking over it…may even reread it. I guess it’s about finding something real in a world full of “phonies” – the thing that he’s searching for and in the end he finds it with his sister.

“Holden is idealistic, yet a failure. He hates “phonies” like actors, musicians, and snobby prep school kids, but loves genuine people, like “old Phoebe” his little sister—such things “kill” him. He can’t do the system—sees no reason to. Neither can he get past the death of his little brother Allie, a victim of cancer. Holden is impulsive, a spendthrift, a pathological liar, yet has a strong respect for goodness. He sees through the crap, but he can’t seem to separate the good from the bad in order to enjoy, learn from, or be bolstered by the good. The good is rather tainted by the bad, the punishing teachers, selfish jocks, shallow girls, cruel kids. They ruin the whole world for Holden. He has become something of a misanthrope. His use of hyperbole is at first comic, and eventually tiresome. He acts without inhibition, but without purpose or even a sense of adventure—he just keeps going, perhaps so he doesn’t have to sit and think, consider his situation. He tells Phoebe that the only thing he would really enjoy becoming in life is the “catcher in the rye” an imaginary job, spin off of a poem (actually a misreading) where kids play ball in the rye, near a cliff; it’s Holden’s job, as catcher, to keep them from falling off the cliff.

He half-heartedly seeks comfort from the world, often imagining that the world and its people are in sync with him—that bartenders will serve him cocktails, that whores will be honest, clerks will respect Christmas trees, teachers will have moral integrity, that in the midst of his wilderness he can sit on a train and have pleasant conversation with nuns, giving donations to their good work.

A former English teacher counsels him, quoting psychoanalyst, Wilhelm Stekel: “the mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one.” Holden isn’t living, so in essence he is dying. The advice is bang on, but the messenger, who makes a midnight pass at Holden, is still imperfect.

In the end it is Phoebe who brings him home—her goodness, her unqualified trust in him, her willingness to bring a suitcase and follow him anywhere. This “kills him” and brings him home.”

“Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery it is. In the boredom and pain of it no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace.”
Frederick Buecher ‘Now and Then’

There is a small print to having a girlfriend. Namely a certain of
month where her general emotions become a lot more…intensified…and
it may involve emotional outbreaks for seemingly no reason but inside
her invisible to the outside world is the incredible weight of the
thing called her life that all of a sudden becomes a crushing burden
she struggles underneath. What she needs at this point of time is some
warm arms to snuggle into, sympathetic nods, getting anrgy at the
people/things that make her angry, cooked tea, chocolate and loving
kisses.

Being a busy (newly) 18 year old with her final year of high school, production and violin to keep her constantly on the go…it’s hard to write my usual superbly crafted articles for this blog on a regular basis (note sarcasm intended) therefore every so often on a much more frequent basis I will include these ‘Assorted Nibbles’ – much like assorted nibblies you find at party they are small interesting snippets full of flavour that satiate your taste buds until the next meal arrives.

So enjoy!

Party Aftermath

“You left your mask behind

Hanging on my tree

And with a fixed grin it is

Completely mocking me”

Erin’s Study Tip: Do not do you study within arms reach of food. But do have it in arms reach of water

“He looses it in the most beautiful way” Julia Lester Classic FM Radio Announcer. What we could hope for every musician at one point in their careers.

Song I have a crush on at the moment: ‘Times Are A Changin’ cover by Tracey Chapman yeah I know classic oldie right but I am young and so have only just discovered it for myself. The words are so powerful and I’m just praying that they have as much relevance to this decade as it did in the 70’s cos there’s so much out there that needs some ‘changes’ and yes i do want to be one of those ‘writers and prophets’…and Tracey’s voice just fits suits this song so well.

Latest Mission: Making people I come into contact with feel like they matter and that they’re worthwhile. Inpisred by Gandhi who I’ve been reading about lately and how he abolished the Indian caste of the ‘Untouchables’ – let no one be an Untouchable in your life – instead reach out and touch their lives and who nkows you could change it. There’s also an Indian Caste of the ‘Invisibles’ who people dont even see. Wouldn’t it be amazing to them if someone actually looked them in the eye and noticed them for who they were. So dont ignore people even if you feel awkward around them – meet their eye and even with a simple nod acknowelge their prescence!